


you're my favorite song (and it's stuck in my head)

by artemiswords



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bike Rides, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Lots of fluff!!!, School bus, Social Media, Valentine's Day, basically catradora deserves more fluff so here it is, me: let's write a small valentine's day one shot why not // me 16k words later: oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 09:11:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17957735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemiswords/pseuds/artemiswords
Summary: Catra had imagined lots of scenarios for her first bus ride to school. Annoying people screaming on the seats around of her. Getting kicked out by the bus driver for punching a random guy (wouldn’t be the first time). Or whatever other torture school buses could provide.But she never imagined she’d be listening to Taylor Swift(!?) and sharing earphones with a complete stranger. A very cute stranger. And nothing felt weird or awkward. Like if Adora and Catra had known each other for a long time already. Maybe the universe wasn’t so mean after all.orCatra likes to pretend she's too cool to have feelings.





	you're my favorite song (and it's stuck in my head)

Catra had dreaded this day for a long time. She had avoided it as much as she could but it was officially too cold to be outside for more than 10 minutes without possibly losing a toe. She really tried, but riding a bike over snow was hard enough already and having freezing wind feeling like it was cutting through her soul definitely didn’t help it. This Monday was the day she finally would have to face one of modern’s world worst punishments – taking the school bus.

The whole point of not freezing wasn’t working though because the bus was, _of course_ , late. She was almost giving up and going back home when she spotted the yellow blob in the distance. The worst part of having avoided the bus for this long was that she had no idea of what were the social dynamics going on in there or who even rode the bus. She just hoped she could seat in the back, next to a weird but quiet kid that would leave her alone, while she zoned out and maybe even took a nap. But would the universe ever let her have something nice?

The bus finally reached her and Catra jumped in, taking her hood off. At least she wasn’t cold anymore. She looked around, the bus was almost all full. The windows seats were of course all taken. Some dudes with not very friendly faces stared at her from the back seats. Looked like the back seats were no options either. Other kids sat with their stuff all over their adjoined seats. The bus had already started moving and it looked like the closest available seats were the very front ones. The two on the left were completely trashed, probably why they were free. On the right there was an empty seat next to a girl leaned against the window. Catra assumed she didn’t look threatening so that was her best option for the day.

Catra sat down putting her backpack by her feet while she searched in its pockets for her earphones. She noticed the girl shifting a bit when she realized someone had just sat next to her.

“Oh, hi!” The stranger said in a voice way too friendly for that time in the morning. “I don’t think I’ve seen you riding this bus before. I’m Adora!”

“Hey.” Catra continued to shuffle through her backpack.

“Um, what’s your name?”

“Catra.” She yawned.

It really was way too early for small talk. If she could only find those damn earphones…

“Did you lose something?”

Catra huffed quietly and finally turned to face the girl. She had possibly the friendliest expression Catra had seen in someone at that early in the morning. Not in a bad a way though, like those creepy always-grinning characters from horror movies. She had a soft smile and some very intense blue eyes.

Catra blinked, taking a second too long to remember what she was looking for.

“Uh, yeah. I think I forgot my stupid earphones.”

Catra checked her jacket’s pockets to be sure they weren’t there either. Great. Being in a school bus without earphones had to be classified as an international crime.

Catra groaned and dramatically slid down her seat. She could already feel the boredom consuming her. What was she supposed to do now? Read a book!? As if she even carried any books in her backpack...

“I guess... we could share?” The girl next to her said a bit unsure. Catra forgot she was sitting next to someone. Adora apparently. “I mean, if you want to…”

Catra sat up. She just noticed Adora had earphones on and that she was now offering her left one to her.

Catra shrugged and took it.

“Eh, why not? But I’m totally gonna judge your music taste.” Catra smirked, pointing at the girl while putting the earphone in her ear.

Adora smiled. Dang, what a cute smile that girl had.

“Ok, I guess the pressure is on then.”

Adora had whatever she was playing before paused as she browsed through her songs in her phone.

“Apple Music? Really?”

“What’s wrong with Apple Music!?” Adora looked legit offended.

“I mean, Spotify is just so much better in so many levels.”

“Well, Spotify didn’t have Taylor Swift until not so long ago, so…”

“Uh, you say it like that’s a bad thing…?”

Adora looked offended again. “Hey! My phone, my rules, ok? Or I’ll confiscate your earphone.”

“Ok, whatever.” Catra chuckled. “Just play something.”

Adora rolled her eyes and finally picked a song.

“This is from my Indies playlist.”

A song that Catra had never heard before started playing. It had some cool drums in the background and a nice vibe to it.

“I’m digging the drums.”

Adora smiled proudly, seeming satisfied with herself.

Catra adjusted herself in her seat and smiled too, tapping her fingers to the rhythm of the music.

“You can play some pop too if you want, by the way.” Catra said after some songs assuming Adora liked pop since she mentioned Taylor Swift.

“You’re not going to make fun of me?”

“Oh, I will.” Catra smirked at her.

Adora rolled her eyes.

“You know what?” She smiled mischievously. “I feel like you deserve this.”

Adora browsed to a playlist called “Taylor” and picked a random song in it. Catra was incredulous.

“You have a playlist that is _just_ Taylor Swift songs!?”

“Yeah, but these are just the best.”

Catra reached for Adora’s phone and scrolled all the way down on the screen.

“Adora, it says it has 34 songs.”

“I said what I said.”

Catra dramatically facepalmed and Adora started laughing. Her nose scrunched in a way that was too cute to possibly be legal. When the next song started playing Adora suddenly looked even more excited than she already was.

“Ok, this one has to be in my top three!” Adora then started to dramatically lip sync to All Too Well, pretending her phone was a microphone.

Oh, no. Catra knew that song. Sometimes there are songs that just mysteriously get to you, even if you cannot related to a single word it says. It gets worse when you despise the artist. So you have to pretend you hate it any time it comes on, but sometimes secretly listen to it when you are home alone. This was one of those songs and Catra was completely ashamed to admit she knew all of the lyrics.

Catra crossed her arms pretending to be unimpressed. “It’s alright.”

Adora widened her eyes in surprise. “Wait, you know it? I mean, of course you know it everyone loves this song, right? It’s a classic.”

“I mean, I heard it like once. A little too dramatic though.”

Adora rolled her eyes and went back to lip syncing, gesturing more intensely as she got more into the song. Normally Catra would be having some intense secondhand embarrassment right now but that scene just looked too adorable to not make Catra smile. She tried to hide her smile by facing forward, pretending that song was just another boring pop tune.

“I can see you shaking your head to the song, you know.” Adora said with smugness in her voice.

Catra didn’t notice she was moving until now. It took her a lot of self control to not join in the lip syncing when the bridge came in. She ignored Adora and started picking on her nails.

After the song was over Catra turned her head sideways towards the girl and pouted. “Can we go back to the indie songs now?”

“No way.” Adora smirked and leaned herself back in her seat, closing her eyes and quietly humming to the next song.

That smiley blonde girl was more evil than Catra would’ve imagined. She really didn’t switch to another playlist for the rest of the bus ride. Catra surprisingly didn’t feel annoyed. But she pretended she did as she started asking Adora random things about her, just so she could “focus on something else than these annoying pop songs”. In reality she was just curious to know more about that stranger.

She found out Adora was probably a genius because she was taking mostly advanced or honors classes. Maybe that’s why she didn’t remember ever seeing her around school. Adora swore she listened to a wide variety of genres while Catra argued that it was very hard to believe given the recent events. She asked to see Adora’s other playlists and she made sure Catra wouldn’t try to switch the songs. They looked pretty basic: _Indies, 90s_ , _00s, Top 50_ , _Study Time_ (nerd), _Workout_ , _Disney_ (dork), _Taylor_ (yuck), _2 am_ …

“Do you even stay awake past 2 am?” Catra asked suspiciously considering she had just learned the girl was a big nerd.

“I did, like, once. In a sleepover. Things got pretty deep.”

Catra snorted.

“2 am is more like a _mood_ anyway than the actual hour to listen to it.” Adora justified herself.

Catra wondered what was in that playlist, probably a bunch of Lana del Rey songs. She also learned that Adora lived quite far and was one of the first people to enter the bus.

“And you choose the front seat?” Catra was shocked.

“Have you seen the people that seat in the back?” Adora whispered as if those people would ever hear her through all the chatter going on in the bus. “They’d probably throw things at me until I moved.”

The bus arrived sooner than Catra imagined it would. She dramatically removed the earphone claiming how thankful she was for the Taylor Swift torture to be finally over. Once they left they parted their own ways.

 

Catra had imagined lots of scenarios for her first bus ride to school. Annoying people screaming on the seats around of her. Getting kicked out by the bus driver for punching a random guy (wouldn’t be the first time). Or whatever other torture school buses could provide. But she never imagined she’d be listening to _Taylor Swift_ with a complete stranger. A very cute stranger. And nothing felt weird or awkward. Like if Adora and Catra had known each other for a long time already. Maybe the universe wasn’t so mean after all.

 

* * *

  

The next morning was cold. Again. And the bus was late. Again. Catra made sure to put her earphones on before she left the house.

When she entered the bus it looked like the same people from yesterday sat in pretty much the same spots. She looked at the front seat and spotted a smiley Adora excitedly waving at her. What a dork.

Without much thinking Catra sat down next to her.

“Hey, Adora.”

“Hi!”

She looked even happier and more awake than yesterday. Catra couldn’t understand morning people.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes. Catra tapped her left foot to the rhythm of the song currently playing in her ears. She saw out of the corner of her eyes Adora scrolling repeatedly up and down in her songs library.

“I see you didn’t forget your earphones today.” She said eventually.

“Yep.” Catra turned to Adora with a smug look. “No Taylor Swift today.”

“C’mon, at least admit you like All Too Well.”

That _maybe_ was true but Catra would never say that out loud. People could start thinking she had feelings.

“Eh…”

“So what songs could be _oh so great_ as to please your precious ears and attend to your _impeccable_ music taste?” Adora gestured dramatically.

Catra smiled.

“Well, it’d be a pleasure to present your ears with some real music.” She paused her music and took one of her earphones off, offering it to Adora.

“Prepare to be judged.” Adora said accepting the offer.

“You’re such a dork.” Catra snorted.

Adora gasped.

“I’m sure you have lots of dorky songs yourself.”

“You wish.”

Catra then opened the playlists section of her Spotify.

“Wow how many playlists do you have?”

“No idea. I like making playlists when I’m bored. It’s like having a soundtrack for every moment of your life.”

“And I’m the dork?” Adora snickered. “ _chill vibes_ , _oldies_ , _pretending to listen to the teacher_ , _shower_ , _cool drums_ , _childhood_... wait, _waiting for death_!?”

“Oh, that was the one I was just listening to. It’s for waiting for this bus.”

“You’re so dramatic. What is that one for, the 3 skull emojis?”

Catra then stared at Adora with a serious expression. “That’s for when I want to drink the blood of my enemies. But since that’d be illegal all I can do is listen to some music.”

Adora burst out laughing. Not the reaction Catra imagined would come from someone after hearing about drinking the blood of their enemies but ok. She was starting to enjoy making Adora laugh.

“We gotta listen to that one.” Adora tried to click on it but Catra snapped her phone away in time.

“Ha, no way. I don’t think you’re ready for my cool playlists just yet.” She then went to the Spotify’s search page. “Since you’re so into pop let’s start with some Paramore. They’re like kinda pop but still rock, so that makes them cool.” Catra then picked That’s What You Get.

“Oh my god, I actually love Hayley Williams. I haven’t listened to Paramore in so long.”

“You can never go wrong with them.” Catra smirked.

They both slowly started shaking their heads and feet to the rhythm of the guitar riffs and drums and soon enough they were both lip syncing to the song. They were still in a school bus and although there was a lot of noise from people chatting, Catra sadly couldn’t just start shouting out song lyrics.

Misery Business started playing next and Catra started to play imaginary drums while Adora took care of the imaginary guitar. Ok, maybe they _both_ were big dorks. When the lyrics started Catra’s phone went from an imaginary drumstick to an imaginary microphone as they started lip syncing again. As they both got more into the song, Adora also reached for the “microphone”.

Catra was glad Adora had her eyes closed at that time as she completely froze for a second or two when she felt her hand on hers, feeling her heart skip a beat. She managed to go back to the lip syncing before Adora noticed anything and now they were both passionately silent-singing to an imaginary audience. But Catra became totally aware of herself. She noticed how close she was of Adora, how their arms and shoulders kept touching, how Adora’s knee sometimes bumped into her own, and, mostly important, how freaking cute Adora looked when she was lost in a song like that.

When the guitar solo started, Adora let go of the phone (and Catra’s hand) and went back to her air guitar. When Catra went back to her imaginary drums she accidentally yanked both of their earphones off their ears.

That startled both of them making them burst out laughing.

“Oops, I think I got a little too excited.” Catra panted and reached for the earphones while Adora hugged her own stomach laughing.

She put her earphone back on and turned to Adora, putting the other one in the girl’s ear as delicately as she could. She then instinctively tucked some of the blonde’s loose hair (from all the headbanging) behind her ear. She looked at Adora’s eyes and swallowed, feeling like she got lost for a second, then quickly removed her hand and shifted her body forward again. Catra looked down at her phone and started browsing through Spotify as she felt her face getting uncomfortably hot.

“Can we listen to one of your playlists now? I’m super curious to see what you have in there.”

Catra’s face started feeling normal again.

“Fine.” She clicked on the playlists section again, trying to remember which songs were in which playlist.

“Wait, _sins and tragedies_ is that a Panic! At the Disco reference? Is that like an emo playlist?”

Dammit. Catra didn’t think other people would ever be looking at her dumb playlist names.

“Maybe...”

Adora tried to hide a laugh. “Oh my god, Catra, you had an emo phase!”.

She then reached for the phone and clicked on it, faster than last time so Catra didn’t have time to react. Catra tried to grab her phone back but Adora was stronger than she appeared.

“My Chemical Romance, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Avril Lavigne, Blink-182…” She wasn’t hiding her laugh anymore. Catra took that as an opportunity to quickly take her phone from the girl’s hand.

“Ok, maybe I _did_ have an emo phase. And maybe I still listen to _some_ emo songs from time to time...”

“That looks like a very long playlist.”

Catra felt her face getting warm again.

“Well, at least it is not Taylor Swift.”

“I don’t think you can save yourself from this one, dork.”

Catra rolled her eyes and picked a random song from the playlist.

“If I had to suffer through Taylor Swift I guess you’re going to suffer through old emo songs for the rest of the ride then.”

“Sadly I’ll probably know most of the songs.”

Catra raised one eyebrow.

“ _You_ had an emo phase too?”

“No!” Adora laughed and shook her head as that idea sounded as absurd as Catra figured it’d be. “One of my best friends had a brief and intense emo phase growing up so she made me listen to lots of emo songs. Funnily enough she loves pink and sparkly things now.”

“Wow.”

“You didn’t seem to have had a very drastic change by the amount of black of your outfit. You sure your emo phase is over?”

“Please.” Catra snorted. “I stopped being emo when I stopped having feelings.”

Adora rolled her eyes. Maybe Catra wasn’t emo anymore but she still knew how to be just as dramatic.

“Did you cover one of your eyes with a fringe?”

“Would I even have been a legit emo if I didn’t?”

Catra never thought she’d talk about her emo days so openly but Adora was cackling again and that gave her some unexpected fuzzy feelings inside.

Adora lifted her hand up between her and Catra’s face, closing one eye. She moved her hand from left to right, as if trying to picture it as Catra’s fringe.

“Which eye did you cover? The blue one or the golden brown one?”

“Why does that even matter?”

“I don’t know, your eyes are just so cool.” She lowered her hand back and stared at Catra, smiley as always. Catra couldn’t help but smile too. The fuzzy feelings were back.

They listened to one more song from the now infamous _sins and tragedies_ playlist until Catra decided to change it to a less embarrassing one. She hoped to remember later to google if password locking playlists was a thing. She chose one with more recent songs called _cool beats_ that had some upbeat R&B songs.

They stayed in silence enjoying the music for a couple more songs.

“Can I look at your playlists page again?”

“Why?”

“Some of them just have such interesting names I was curious about their backstories.”

“Ugh fine, but no clicking.” Catra then browsed to that page while Adora examined it closely.

“ _running from the police_? What is that one about?”

“For when I need to escape from the evil claws of the law, duh.”

“You’d have time to select a playlist before your great escape?”

“Ok, that is just the playlist for when I’m biking or running. But I did have to run from a cop once.”

Adora eyed her suspiciously. “What did you do?”

“Nothing! I was just minding my business when a guy from school saw me on the street and said something about me to his dad standing next to him... Who happens to be a cop. Next thing I knew the dad started chasing after me. But it wasn’t even an epic chase, he was waaay too slow.”

“What did the guy even say to him?”

“Uh, probably something about me kicking him in the balls the day before. And then also maybe kneeing him in the head...”

Adora widened her eyes and backed away slightly from Catra. “Why!?”

“Because he is fucking stupid! He kept making fun of my friend just because her social skills aren’t the best.” Catra shrugged. “He left her alone after that.”

“That’s actually... pretty badass. Your friend is lucky to have you as her friend.” Adora relaxed. “I broke a guy’s nose once.”

“Whaaat! Did you use your elbow?” Catra made a movement with her elbow remembering a couple of times she _had_ to break someone’s nose.

“No, my fist actually.” Adora let out a small laugh. “You ask how and not why?”

“I’m assuming if you had to punch someone he probably deserved it. Not bad for a dork.” Catra smirked. She was genuinely impressed.

“Yeah, he tried to grab my ass in a party.”

“Yuck. You should’ve broken his hand too.”

“You’re gonna have to teach me how to do that.” Adora turned to the phone again. ”What’s in _mount everest_?”

“Ha... It has songs for when you’re, uh, high I guess.”

“Mount Everest?” Adora looked confused.

“Because it is the highest mountain?” Catra shrugged. “I was high when I made it and thought it was pretty hilarious.”

Adora shook her head unimpressed.

“I almost never smoke to be honest.” Catra didn’t know why she felt like explaining herself.

“Don’t worry, I was just judging the lame name choice.” Adora chuckled.

They spent the rest of the ride talking. Adora kept asking questions about Catra and her playlists. Catra didn’t realize she had made so many and she hoped there would be no more accidents like earlier. She knew she had other embarrassing ones around but their names thankfully weren’t so obvious.

Sometimes Adora would get her own phone to write the name of a song that was playing to add it to her library later, causing Catra to go on about how generous she was to be sharing her awesome taste in music with Adora. Adora just rolled her eyes or made some comment about her taste in _emo_ music. She asked what was the playlist with 2 smirk emojis about but quickly decided she actually didn’t need to know. Little did Adora know it was just another playlist Catra made when she was high and it had 10 random songs. Catra had no idea why she ever made it but never bothered to delete it.

Near the end of the bus ride Adora made them switch to a playlist called _dale_ after she found out Catra was latina and it had her favorite songs by latino artists. She was still insisting for Catra to sing just a little bit in Spanish (with Catra intensely shaking her head in refusal), when the bus got to the school.

Catra hoped tomorrow would be cold again.

 

* * *

 

It was. And so were the next days of that week. It had been just a few days but it already felt like a routine. In the morning Catra complained about the bus being late (she didn’t complain about the cold anymore), jumped in it when it finally showed up, spotted a smiley blonde, sat next to her, and offered her one of her earphones.

On Wednesday, Catra was excited to play for them her _classicals_ playlist. Adora said in a surprised voice that she didn’t imagine Catra would listen to classical music. It was actually Catra’s favorite classic rock songs. Adora liked how spooky Hotel California was and couldn’t stop laughing at Catra’s passionate air guitar performance of the entire two minutes of the song’s guitar solo.

On Thursday, Adora made them listen to the Spiderverse soundtrack, which Catra enjoyed a lot. They ended up listening to Sunflower on repeat for most of the ride, though, because Adora said she was obsessed with it and it was way too short to listen to it just once (or over 10 times apparently).

On Friday, Adora looked more excited than usual, if that was even possible.

“Catra, hi! You inspired me to create more playlists. Mine were too generic, I realized I needed to divide them for more specific moments.” Adora held her phone towards Catra as she sat down. “I actually don’t have many songs in them yet but I started to categorize them.”

“Categorize? Did you make a spreadsheet or something?” Catra grabbed the girl’s phone.”

“Maybe...”

“ _Study: Reading_ , _Study: Math_ , _Study: Writing_ , _Study: Intense Focus_... geez, how many study playlists do you need?”

“You know, there are different types of studying.” Adora gestured her hands around. “Like when you need to read something so song lyrics distract you, but then if you’re solving math problem sets lyrics are fine.”

“Nerd.” Catra kept scrolling. “ _Workout: Cardio_ , _Workout: Strength_ , _Workout: Outside_...

Adora, I think you may have a problem.”

“Ugh, they are still in development.” Adora groaned and grabbed her phone back.“I’m just trying to be organized.”

Catra hadn’t intended to be mean.

“Well, I think that’s very cute. I’m glad I could inspire you.”

Adora smiled still staring at her phone. Catra noticed the girls’ cheek looked more pink than usual. I guess that day was colder too.

“Anyway I wanted to show you this one.” She offered Catra her earphone.

“ _Bus Ride_?”

“I thought we could keep adding to it with songs that we both like.”

Catra suddenly felt the need to scream about how cute Adora was. She managed to keep it cool.

“Did you put Taylor Swift in it…?”

Adora smirked at her. “I think you know the answer to that.” She then opened the playlist and clicked on All Too Well.

Catra proceeded to roll her eyes and drag her hands down her face in the most exaggerated way she could manage to while trying to fight the smile that curled up her lips.

 

* * *

 

That weekend went by uneventful. Catra hanged out with her two best friends Scorpia and Entrapta as usual and procrastinated doing any work as usual. She realized she had so many playlists because that’s how she usually procrastinated. She decided to try to make a study playlist. Maybe the reason she couldn’t ever study much was because she listened to angry punk songs to fuel her rage against the school system that obligated her to study instead of let her do something fun. But she’d always end up getting distracted by the music and start singing and jumping around instead. Maybe Adora had a point about songs with no lyrics.

She tried listening to some classical songs but almost fell asleep in the process. Maybe instrumental songs weren’t for her. With some research she eventually found out about lo-fi playlists. She made one called _stu(dying)_ and added some hip hop lo-fi music that seemed upbeat enough to keep her up. She decided to try the playlist out by... actually doing some homework. On a weekend night! And it miraculously worked! Well, she didn’t finish the homework but she did more than half of it before getting too bored. As her friend Entrapta would say it the experiment was a success, so she went back to adding more songs to it.

Monday finally came. Catra never thought she’d be feeling happy on a Monday morning. Maybe she was getting sick? That morning the bus was two minutes earlier than usual (although still later than it’s scheduled time). Catra readily jumped into it, but stopped on her tracks as soon as she looked at her usual seat.

She hadn’t been greeted by a smiley blonde. In fact, the seats were empty. Catra scanned the rest of the bus but didn’t find Adora anywhere. The bus started to move so she sat down, taking the window seat this time. She grabbed her phone and clicked on the shuffle button of her library, not picking any specific playlist. She spent the rest of the ride leaned on the window, sometimes accidentally hitting her head a little too hard when the bus would go over a hole in the road. She didn’t realize the ride was so bumpy. Or so long.

The next day the seats were empty again. Catra started to wonder if maybe Adora was sick. Although she looked like the type of person that wouldn’t miss class even if she lost a limb on her way to school. Maybe she was late and missed the bus… but that sounded even more unlikely, especially two days in a roll. Whatever. She picked Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” playlist in hopes to find something new that she enjoyed. The ride was bumpy and long again.

Wednesday morning Catra was very annoyed. School was starting to get more intense and that week felt like it was dragging forever. The bus was fucking late as always and she was freezing at the bus stop. When it finally arrived Catra groaned quietly when she sat down next to the empty seat again.

Her annoyance could also be because she had no idea why Adora hadn’t been taking the bus that week. She never saw her in school and also didn’t even have her number to text her and ask. Catra didn’t know why that bothered her so much. She had known Adora for like a  week, she couldn’t be missing her that much. It wasn’t like she had a crush on her or something.

Misery Business started playing on Catra’s ears and she started thinking of the previous week. She recalled how Adora could barely breath from all the laughing they were having and how she was beaming with her giant dumb smile and dumb sparkly eyes. Catra touched her own hand remembering how Adora was holding onto it while they were acting like two big dumbheads lip syncing to the song. She realized she was smiling like an idiot. She groaned and covered her face. Fuck, was she crushing on Adora? That day she felt like listening to I Miss You by Blink-182 on repeat for a few times.

On Thursday, Catra was already used to the new routine. She’d complain about the cold, complain about the bus being late, seat on the window seat on the front, and zone out while listening to music. It was actually good that Adora wasn’t taking the bus anymore. Catra didn’t have time to have crushes. She had things to do, places to see and playlists to make. She especially didn’t have time to have crushes on straight girls. Which she was pretty sure Adora was. A nerd, _swiftie_ , gorgeous, straight girl. Catra chose the shuffle button, making sure to skip any songs about love that started playing.

On Friday, Catra almost had a heart attack when she heard her name being shouted as soon as she stepped on the bus, causing a few people to stare at her. She found Adora on the front seat covering her mouth with her hands.

“Shoot! I didn’t mean to be so loud.”

Catra ignored the looks and sat down next to her. She was about to say something when Adora grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a quick hug. Catra froze, completely forgetting what people are supposed to do when they are hugged. She then remembered people usually hug back but Adora had already let go of her.

“Sorry! Hi!” Adora was as smiley as Catra remembered as she started talking at 100 words per second. “Sorry I disappeared I tried to find you in school the other day but I had no idea where to look for that school is so big I was also super busy this week i was so stressed am I talking too fast I had more coffee than usual this morning!!!”

Catra blinked twice.

“Uh, hi to you too?”

Adora laughed. Shit, it was still cute.

“Sorry, let’s start again.” Adora cleared her throat. “How are you?” She managed to speak in normal human speed.

“I’m good!” Catra then softy punched Adora on her shoulder. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Uugh, morning soccer practice started this week. I have to take the earlier bus to be at school in time for it.”

“Soccer practice in this weather?”

“We play indoors in the winter. The coach makes us train in the mornings and in the afternoons now. But at least now we have Fridays off!”

A nerd and a jock at the same time? Adora couldn’t be real.

“And you do it _voluntarily_?”

“I love soccer! And who knows maybe I can hopefully get a sports scholarship when I apply for college. Anyway, the coach only told us about the schedule change on Friday and I realized I had no way of letting you know I’d disappear from the bus all of a sudden. So could I maybe get your number?”

Adora was smiling and handing out her phone to Catra.

“Uh, yeah! Of course.” She gave out her own phone so Adora could share her number too. Catra had to focus for a while to remember her own digits. “I thought you had died or something.”

“Died, really? You didn’t think I was... I don’t know, just skipping class?”

They handed their phones back to each other and Catra snorted.

“Have you _ever_ skipped school, Adora?”

Adora paused pensively.

“Hm… ok, you got me.” She chuckled. “So, have you made any new playlists lately?”

Catra turned suddenly to Adora and grabbed her by the shoulders, startling the girl.

“Oh my god, you’re gonna be so proud of me.” She let go of her and grabbed her earphone to share it. “I made a study playlist!”

Adora’s jaw dropped.

“No way!”

Catra then showed her _stu(dying)_ playlist to Adora (who rolled her eyes at the name). Adora had never heard of lo-fi songs before. She said they’d be great additions to her _Study: Intense Focus_ playlist. Adora told her that she added some classic rock songs to some of her workout playlists. Catra had never felt so proud. They spent the rest of the ride listening to Adora’s _Bus Ride_ playlist while adding some more songs to it.

Catra had missed this more than she would like to admit. Adora managed to change her mood for the better so easily. She tried not to think too much about the feeling that’d sometimes arise on her stomach when Adora accidentally bumped into her or brushed her fingers on her hand while trying to see something on Catra’s phone. She was also trying not to think about the hug she received not so long ago. It was so quick but the flowery smell from Adora’s hair was still on her nose. Catra was sure she’d manage to not catch any feelings for Adora. It was just maybe a light harmless _admiration_ (not even a crush, really!) for her. Just like she had on basically any pretty girl she spotted her eyes on. Plus, she was too cool to have feelings to begin with. But she was happy to maybe have a new friend.

 

That night she was hanging out with Scorpia and Entrapta when she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket.

 

 **Adora**  

hey :)  
do u like ed sheeran by any chance?  
this is adora btw

hey  
his songs are too sappy  
but bloodstream live is kinda cool  
why  
i literally saw u saving ur number on my phone i know its u

no reason  
isn’t that song about drugs  
haha i know but just in case

yea  
dork

 

“Catra pay attention, this is the good part!” Scorpia excitedly tapped on Catra’s arm.

The three of them were sitting down on Scorpia’s bedroom floor on a pile of blankets and pillows, watching Lion King for probably the 20th time. Scorpia loved Disney movies but Lion King especially. She said a scene was “the good part” for at least ten different ones. She also sobbed every time Mufasa died. Catra usually looked away at that part to not accidentally tear up — she had a soft spot for felines.

Catra didn’t know what to make of that interaction. Maybe Adora was looking for more songs to add to the _Bus Ride_ playlist? But why the hell she’d be doing that on a Friday night? Especially since they wouldn’t see each other again until next Friday. Catra suddenly felt Scorpia’s arm around her shoulders.

“C’mon Catra, it’s our song!” She held Entrapta with her other arm as she started dancing and shouting the lyrics of Hakuna Matata. Entrapta muffled the lyrics while shoving popcorn in her mouth at the same time.

Catra decided to stop thinking about her phone and join her friends on their silly tradition of singing “the super pal trio theme song” as Scorpia would say. She kept glancing at her phone every so often though, just in case any notifications popped up.

Later that night when Catra was already home she got another text. Catra cursed herself for smiling so big when she saw Adora’s name flashing on the screen but immediately clicked on it anyway.

 

**Adora**

what other bands do u like besides paramore??  
and that aren’t from like the 50s  
or 70s idk  
and aren’t emo :)

🙄🙄  
hm i was obsessed with pvris a while ago  
they are super dope i actually think youd like them

cool I’ll check them out

 

They kept texting for hours.

Adora asked if she had any slow song recs that were good to fall asleep to (she was making a new _Sleep_ playlist). Catra thought about sending her a couple of love songs. She sent her a heavy metal song full of incoherent screaming instead. Adora replied she almost had a heart attack and that she would never click on a link Catra sent again. Not so long after that she did though, and got rickrolled. Catra didn’t remember the last time she laughed so hard over texting. When it hit 2am Catra congratulated Adora for still being awake with a range of cat memes. Adora replied with a meme completed unrelated to the topic, then said that her brain was too tired to remember how memes worked so she should probably go to sleep. They kept talking for a bit more time though.

That weekend they talked a lot.

 

* * *

 

On Monday morning when Catra was about to hit the snooze button for a third time she noticed her phone had 2 text notifications on the screen.

 

**Adora**

don’t miss me too much today >;)  
(omg I hope this text didn’t wake u up but if it did SORRY)

 

Catra buried her head in her pillow and muffled a scream before finally getting up. Adora was making it really hard for Catra to not let her _admiration_ for her get more intense. But she was sure it still wasn’t a crush.

On the bus she decided to try to find Adora’s instagram. Catra hadn’t opened that app in months since she only posted stuff there maybe three times a year. It wasn’t too hard to find it.

She started scrolling slowly. There were so many pictures, and Adora was in most of them. Some pictures of scenery with emojis as the caption. Some pictures where she was next to a short girl with pink hair and a dark skinned boy in a crop top looking like fucking magazine models. A picture of a horse, was that a stock image?? A picture of her in her soccer uniform with the rest of the team, all flexing and making silly faces (Adora had the biggest biceps). Apparently no pictures with possible boyfriends, cool, cool. She stopped at a picture of just Adora sitting at a little coffee table holding a starbucks pink drink. So _basic_ and so... dumb. Big dumb perfect smile, big dumb perfect blue eyes, perfect shiny blond hair… _perfect_. Catra closed the app. That had been a mistake.

She opened Spotify and looked at the new playlist she started making that weekend called _sky blue_. She meant to make a “bus ride” playlist too, but Adora’s eyes were the first thing she thought of when naming it. And all the songs in it reminded her of the girl. Catra took a deep breath. She was _sooo fucked_.

She opened her texts again.

 

**Adora**

who dis?

adora...  
wait you’re messing w me right  
?  
catra

_[Youtube link]_

FUCK CATRA NOT AGAIN

language  
arent u playing soccer rn

WE ARE TAKING A WATER BREAK  
NOW EVERYONE THINKS I LISTEN TO RICK ASTLEY

no they just think u a dork 😼

 

The following day while Catra was on the bus she got a text from Adora that was just a youtube link.

 

**Adora**

_[Youtube link]_

u forgot to turn off link preview nerd

FUCK

 

Catra would text Adora during class and Adora would almost immediately reply, even if her reply was just something related to how Catra should be paying attention instead of texting. She kind of wanted to ask her to have lunch together, or even just ask her where she hid during school since she’d never see her around, but she didn’t. Adora didn’t ask her any of those things either. It was like Adora only existed inside the bus or in Catra’s texts.

The next day Catra did something crazy. She woke up one hour earlier than usual. Maybe by luck. Or maybe because she had set her alarm one hour back the night before. She would never know. But since she was awake, why not get up and take the earlier bus to school? For no reason at all.

That early in the morning felt even colder than usual. And the bus was late. Not a surprise but what if Catra had messed up the schedule somehow? She was also _so_ tired. She’d probably fall asleep right there and freeze to death. And why was she even doing that for? Her new self destruction tactics included losing sleep to spend time with pretty straight girls apparently.

She saw the bus approaching. Too late to turn around now.

She stepped on the bus and saw Adora with her earphones on, writing on a notebook with a text book on her lap. She actually looked kind of sleepy. Maybe even morning people had their limits. The bus was more than half empty at that time, but of course Adora still chose the front seat.

She didn’t notice Catra approaching.

“Hey, Adora.” Catra said as she sat down next to the girl.

Adora jumped and almost dropped everything that was on her lap. Catra snickered at the scene while sitting next to her.

“Catra! What are you doing here!?”

Good question. “Uh, going to school?”

“You know what I mean.” She gave her a look.

Catra sighed.

“I have some homework due today that I haven’t finished yet…” Adora crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow. Catra shrugged. “If I tried to do it at home I know I’d get distracted, so I’m going to school early…” Catra reached for one of Adora’s earphone and put it in her own ear. “Anyway, what are you listening to?”

Adora suddenly jumped again and reached for her phone in her pocket, pressing the skip button and almost dropping all of her stuff again. Catra managed to catch Adora’s pencil mid air.

“The hell was that?” She asked placing the pencil on the girl’s notebook.

“Ah, thanks! Sorry, uh, I think I get more clumsy when I’m sleepy.” She held her phone close to her face.

Catra was very confused.

“Why did you skip whatever was playing?”

“I didn’- I did? Uh, I don’t know! By accident!” Adora lowered her phone and grabbed her pencil, avoiding eye contact. “I wanted to choose something different. Wanna see the new songs I added to one of my study playlists?”

Catra shrugged.

“Sure.” She was too tired to figure out why Adora was suddenly acting so weird.

A chill instrumental song started playing and Adora went back to her notebook. “I also have some work to catch up.”

Catra technically always had homework to finish. She was sure she would get motion sickness if she did any work on the bus, though. She crossed her arms and shifted in her seat, trying to get more comfortable — a hard task to achieve on a school bus. She glanced at Adora, she looked focused. She felt it was better to not bother her.

A song with calming beats started playing and Adora started humming to it. Now Catra was getting even sleepier.

Catra moved slightly closer to Adora and without thinking too much she rested her head on the edge of the girl’s shoulder.

“Does this bother you?” She felt Adora tensing up, then relaxing.

“No, I don’t mind.” She replied lowering her voice slightly then going back to humming.

“Cool.”

Catra then shifted a bit closer, yawning and moving her head to a more comfortable spot between Adora’s neck and shoulder. She took a deep breath, feeling Adora’s flowery smell and trying to keep her heart rate at a normal pace. Now she was really comfy. She secretly hoped the bus would somehow take a wrong turn and take twice as long to get to school. Catra closed her eyes and thought about the brief notes she heard before Adora pressed the skip button. They sounded oddly familiar but Catra had no idea what song it could be. It was probably just another Taylor Swift song that Adora didn’t want her to make fun of. Maybe she will ask about it again later, not right now though.

Catra felt Adora’s shoulder moving slightly as she moved her pencil around the paper. Doing homework with someone on your shoulder must be very uncomfortable, but Adora hadn’t complained yet. Being like that so close to that girl was just so _nice_ , like if it was just… right. Catra was trying very hard to stay awake, but the music and Adora’s low humming were so calming. Everything felt so peaceful.

 

Catra woke up to a soft touch on the side of her face.

“Hey, we’re here.” Adora said softly.

Catra sat up rubbing her eyes and yawning.

“Man, I really passed out.” She said still feeling very groggy as she removed her earphone.

Adora had that trademark smiley face of hers. But her eyes looked softer than usual and looked intensely at Catra.

“Yeah not even all the bumps on the road woke you up.” She reached for Catra’s hair, tucking some curls that were in her face behind her ear.

“I guess you’re a good pillow.” Catra couldn’t help but smile too.

Catra kinda wanted to follow Adora and watch her play soccer. But that’d be weird. Plus, she had homework to finish (in theory).

 

Later that day Catra was replaying what happened in the bus on her mind. She thought mostly about napping on Adora but the mysterious song notes kept replaying in her head. Thinking hard enough she kind of remembered hearing a high voice too, but not quite like Taylor’s. She opened her playlists page on her phone and looked at it for a while until her eyes stopped on the one that had the three skull emojis as its name.

She had lied to Adora about that playlist when they first met. It was actually her _secret pop playlist_. Full of guilty pleasure pop songs. She was very relieved when Adora didn’t click on it (even though she found her emo playlist later). Even right now she was embarrassed to be clicking on it, although she was all alone in her room. There was honestly nothing wrong with enjoying pop songs, even some bubblegum pop from time to time, but Catra had a reputation to maintain.

She tried to think the last time she had added songs to that playlist. It was maybe a few months ago when she was feeling extra gay and felt like listening to… Hayley Kiyoko? Wait. Could it be? That day she remembered adding all of Hayley’s songs to that playlist because they are all gay and that should be enough reason to support them. She started going through them, playing a bit and skipping when it didn’t sound right. She was almost giving up when Pretty Girl started playing. Oh shit. She skipped a bit ahead on it and listened until the end. It had to be that one.

Okay. Adora listened to Hayley Kiyoko. Maybe.

Catra could still be wrong about the song. But she could also be right.

But so what? Her songs are super gay and the singer is known as the “lesbian jesus” but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. But still… there was a minimal chance that maybe, just maybe... Adora… was into girls? Catra felt like exploding.

She added Pretty Girl to her _sky blue_ playlist and went to sleep.

 

The next day she didn’t wake up earlier. She actually did but went back to sleep. She was afraid if she entered the bus and saw Adora she’d ask if she liked Hayley Kiyoko before even sitting down. And she was even more scared of the answer.

When she woke up again she had a text notification from Adora: “no hw to finish up today? :)”.

 

**Super Pal Trio**

fellas is it gay to listen to hayley kiyoko  
its for a research project

 **_Scorpia_ **  
wait for what class did i miss something?  
and why are u texting so early omg are u sick????

 **_Entrapta_ **  
You usually never talk to us before 9AM are you ok?  
But regarding your question,  
I believe you can’t assume someone’s sexuality by their music choices  
But there could be a correlation

whats a correlation

 **_Scorpia_ **  
who are you talking about????

 **_Entrapta_ **  
_[Wikipedia link]_

uuh

 **_Scorpia_ **  
catra tell us!!!!

 

After school Catra and her two best friends went to Scorpia’s house to do homework (they practically lived there at this point). And also to interrogate Catra about her new bus friend.

“I did notice your strange good mood in the mornings these past days.” Entrapta said without lifting her eyes from the textbook in front of her.

Catra had just finished summing up her past two and a half weeks. She left out the mushy details, of course.

“Yeah, you’ve been smiley!” Scorpia added.

“So?” Catra tried to pretend she was focused on her math notes.

“You are never smiley in the mornings. Sometimes you don’t even smile on the afternoons!” Scorpia continued and Entrapta nodded in agreement.

Catra rolled her eyes.

“Anyway… I don’t even know why I’m telling you all this. Pretty sure she’s straight.”

“Why is that?” Scorpia asked while starting to doodle on her math notebook.

“She’s just like…” Catra threw her arms up. She hated talking about stuff like this _._ “Ugh, I don’t even know. She’d never be into m- girls.”

“Doesn’t she text you all the time? And is always excited to see you? And hugs you? Sounds like there is enough evidence to say that she likes you.” Entrapta looked at her. She talked like when she was describing one of her social experiments.

“She hugged me like once…”

“Well, it sounds like you really like her. You should just ask her out.” Scorpia said.

“Wha- pfft- I don’t like her! She’s just... pretty. And I wanna know if she’s gay. For no reason.” Catra felt her face warming up as she fiddled with her pencil. Ask her out? She needed realistic options here and her friends weren’t helping.

“Maybe do some experiments and test her reactions?”

“She's not a lab rat, Entrapta.”

“I mean, do something like play that Hayley song for her and see how she reacts. Maybe she's wondering if you're gay too.”

“Oooh you could flirt with her!” Scorpia added excitedly.

That never crossed Catra's mind. She was pretty sure she exhaled gay energy. She was the biggest lesbian she knew! But maybe that didn't always come across as she thought it did? Especially in a school bus at 7am. Catra started chewing on the end of her pencil.

“Test her reactions, huh? Interesting.“

That actually could be fun? Or just plain disastrous.

“And then you ask her out! Valentine’s day is coming up soon.” Scorpia then doodled a heart over Catra’s notes writing C + A inside of it.

Catra furiously scribbled over it making the other two girls start laughing.

“Yuck, I hate valentine’s day.”

 

The next day Catra still hadn’t figured out what her plan would be exactly. Or her “experiments”. Testing someone’s reactions sounded like fun though. Hm maybe Catra was spending too much time with Entrapta...

Maybe she should just be herself.

On the bus she was greeted by that familiar smiley face and happy waving.

“Hey, Adora.” Catra sat down next to her. “I hope you didn’t miss me too much yesterday.” She stared at the girl and smirked. Her eyes were _so_ blue.

Adora blinked twice. “No! Hi! I mean, pfft- I didn’t, don’t worry.” She rolled her eyes and looked at her phone.

Catra reached for Adora’s left earphone. “So watch’u got for us today?”

She got a little closer to Adora to look over at her phone.

“Uh, I wanted to listen to Ariana’s new album. I have heard some songs but haven’t gone through all of it yet.”

“Ugh, that song thank you next has been playing everywhere nonstop.”

“We can listen to something else too…”

“Nah it’s fine, but let’s skip just that one.”

“Cool.” Adora clicked on the first song called imagine. She soon started shaking her head slightly to the rhythm.

They were both in silence paying attention to it.

 _Quick, quick, quick, let's go / Kiss me and take off your clothes / Imagine a world like that_.

The lyrics were… interesting.

 _Imagine a world like that /_ _We go like up 'til I'm 'sleep on your chest_.

Catra rested her head on Adora’s shoulder like she did two days before. She noticed Adora stopping moving her head.

_Love how my face fits so good in your neck._

Catra smiled.

“I like this one.” She said in a low voice.

“Me too.” Adora replied after a moment. Her voice so low that Catra almost didn’t hear it.

Adora felt a little frozen, like if she was scared to move. Her hands gripping firmly on her phone. Catra wanted to… do something.

But she didn’t know what.

“I dare you to sing those whistle notes right now.” Catra broke the silence by the end of the song.

Adora laughed softly turning her head up and Catra wished she could record all of Adora’s laughs and put in on a playlist.

“I wish I could sing even the normal notes.” She then rested her head on top of Catra’s.

They stayed like that for a few more songs.

Adora’s phone screen faded to black and Catra caught a glimpse of their reflection before she moved her hand slightly. Adora had her eyes closed and a smile as big as Catra’s. Catra felt her chest filling up.

Another song was half way through when Adora suddenly moved.

“I forgot to ask you! Did you see Avril Lavigne released a new album?”

Catra sat up too.

“What?! When??”

“I knew you’d freak out too.” Adora giggled. “Glimmer was freaking out about it to me the other day.”

Catra gave her a questioning glance.

“The friend that had an emo phase.”

“Right. Well, Avril was basically _the love of my life_ for little emo me.” Catra made sure to emphasize the love of my life part. “And Hayley Williams too, of course.”

“Yeah?” Adora paused and stared. “Hers too apparently.”

Something in her expression seemed to shift, eyes suddenly full of wonder. She looked like she was examining Catra.

“Well?” Catra raised one eyebrow.

“Uh?”

“Are we going to listen to it or what?”

“Right. I was waiting for you to ask.” She smiled and looked at her phone, opening Avril’s album.

Catra scooted closer again. She pointed at one of the songs and let out an obnoxious laughter.

“Look! She wrote a song about you!”

“Uh?” Adora followed Catra’s finger. “‘Dumb Blonde’? Wow, Catra, very funny.” Adora rolled her eyes but didn’t contain a small smile. “You’re not actually funny, you know that right?”

“Then why are you smiling?” Catra tilted her head with a cocky smile.

Adora stared at her for a moment or two and then clicked on the song. 

_I ain't no dumb blonde / I ain't no stupid Barbie doll / I got my game on / Watch me, watch me, watch me prove you wrong._

“Okay, maybe you are right. Maybe it’s about me.” Adora smirked and started nodding her head to the drums.

Catra sat back rolling her eyes. She crossed her arms and continued to pay attention to the song. It was very different from old Avril.

_I'm a babe, I'm a boss and I'm makin' this money._

“Yeah, you’re a babe.” Catra said in a teasing voice and poked Adora’s cheek.

Wait. Did she just call Adora a babe? She glanced at her. She looked frozen again. Her face was... turning pink? Catra felt her own face warming up. But then (un)fortunately the bus took a stop. They had arrived.

“G-guess I’ll see you next week?” Adora asked looking anywhere but at Catra.

“Uh, yeah. See ya, Adora.”

Did that count as an experiment?

 

Later that night Catra listened to all of Avril’s album. The _sky blue_ playlist got three new additions: Ariana’s imagine and Avril’s Crush and Love Me Insane.

 

* * *

 

That Saturday Catra was at Scorpia’s home when it happened.

The super pal trio (Catra hated that name but it had really sticked) was lazily chilling on the living room floor not doing much. Entrapta looked very focused on her laptop. Scorpia was half watching the TV on the background, half playing on her phone. Catra was browsing through youtube on her phone.

“That Adora girl is so pretty.” Scorpia said out of nowhere.

“Uh?” Catra lowered her phone and looked at her friend.

“Oh I’m looking at instagram!”

Catra narrowed her eyes. She hadn’t opened instagram since that day in the bus.

“Why are you stalking her?”

“I’m not! I followed her a few days ago and today she just posted something.” Scorpia rubbed her chin. “I don’t get her caption though.”

“Ugh, why did you follow her if you don’t even know her?”

“Oh, wait! It must be song lyrics! That’s why they don’t make sense with the picture.”

Song lyrics?

She closed youtube and opened the other app. Oddly, she had two new notifications.

 

 **ado_ra** liked your post. _3 days ago_

 **ado_ra** started following you. _3 days ago_

 

Three days ago. Wednesday. The first day Catra took the early bus. Not like she was keeping track or something.

When Catra remembered how to blink and move her fingers again she clicked on Adora’s profile. There was a new picture since she last looked.

It looked like it had been taken in the school gymnasium, under a giant window that it has over the stands. It was one of those fake-candid pictures. Like if Adora just happened to be sitting in perfect lighting, looking at something in the distance and smiling at the perfect angle when someone snapped the picture. Still, she looked… _gorgeous_. Did she even know how beautiful she was? Catra realized she was getting sidetracked and finally looked below the picture.

 

 _Liked by_ **_scorps_ ** _and 104 others_  
**ado_ra** Love how your face fits so good in my neck  
_4h ago_  
_Comments_  
**merminsta** 👀  
**ky__le** is nobody gonna tell her she messed up the lyrics xD  
**_glimm** @ky__le pls block him already @ado_ra  
**bowow** @ky__le ever heard of poetic license??

 

Catra then did the most logical thing her brain could come up with at that moment. She threw her phone across the room.

 

Luckily, it landed intact on the couch. After Catra made sure her heart hadn’t actually exploded inside of her even though it felt like it, she laid down facing the ceiling and grinning like an idiot.

She felt Scorpia’s and Entrapta’s gaze on her and covered her face with her arms.

“What?” She tried to sound like she was groaning but her voice was higher than she anticipated.

A moment of silence.

“Uh, you just... threw your phone across the room. Out of nowhere. But... you don’t look angry?” Entrapta said carefully.

“Oh, it slipped.”

“Catra, what’s going on?” Scorpia asked in her usual confused/worried voice.

Now Catra actually groaned.

 

She told them about the day before. The _kind-of-cuddling_ , Ariana’s song, the _possibly-flirting_ , and the instagram post. Entrapta started taking notes while Scorpia let out ocasional shrieks of excitement. Catra wished she could hide under the couch.

“So she’s also doing experiments!” Entrapta analyzed her recent notes.

“Uh?”

“Given the context of that caption, I believe she wrote it to test your reaction.”

Scorpia clapped excitedly at Entrapta’s conclusion.

“Ooor it’s just a dumb instagram caption.” Catra said rolling her eyes.

They both gave her a look.

“Catra, please. She even changed the lyrics!” Scorpia held her phone towards her with Adora’s picture on the screen.

She knew they were probably right. If she hadn’t changed the lyrics then maybe it could just be a dumb caption. Still… Catra didn’t want to get her hopes up.

Catra sighed.

“So what should I do now?” She pointed at Scorpia. “And don’t say ask her out!”

Scorpia opened her mouth then closed it again, pouting.

“Well, she’s waiting for a reaction.” Entrapta answered going back to focus on her laptop. That girl was getting really good at reading people.

After more moments of ceiling contemplation Catra dragged herself up and grabbed her phone again.

She followed Adora back. Then she stared at her most recent picture for a while before clicking on the like button.

Scorpia suggested she should also post a cool picture of herself with some similar caption. She made sure to highlight that all of Catra’s pictures were cool so that’d be easy. After a lot of convincing they spent the rest of the day taking pictures of her. Scorpia took care of the scenarios and directed Catra’s poses, even though she ignored her commands (like if Catra would _ever_ smile for a picture), while Entrapta took care of the different camera angles and lighting.

 

Catra’s friends finally let her go home after they made her pinky promise that she’d actually post something that day. Catra couldn’t believe she was actually considering doing that. Flirty instagram indirects!? What had happened with her whole cold and cool façade? She should just walk up to Adora, look her dead in those beautiful blue eyes, point at her perfect shaped nose, and then... uh, nevermind that didn’t sound cold or cool either.

Catra threw herself down on her bed and started going through her camera roll. She immediately deleted all the fake-candid ones (even if some really were candids as her friends were taking pics nonstop). They looked too forced. Catra wasn’t afraid of staring at people or at cameras.

There was one that she really liked. She was in a squatting pose against a white wall, with her body facing the camera, arms stretched down in front of her, and her big jacket falling from one shoulder. Her hair didn’t look _too_ messy, more like a cool controlled mess. The camera was a bit below eye level so it looked like she was staring down at the viewer, with her mouth half open and one eyebrow just slightly raised. Her mismatched eyes almost looked shiny, thanks to Entrapta’s lighting. She didn’t look angry, more like… almost threatening but in a cool way? Maybe that could even be her new profile picture.

Ok, it was time for the caption. She couldn’t post Ariana’s lyrics, that’d be too obvious. And definitely _not_ Taylor Swift. She tried to think of the songs they had heard together but nothing seemed right. She then remembered Hayley Kiyoko’s Pretty Girl. She googled the lyrics -- they were definitely relatable. _I just wanna tell you that you're really pretty girl._  True, but too lame for a caption. _Feel it all despite / The fact you don't like my type_. Catra felt like she could just burst into flames at the idea that maybe-perhaps-possibly Adora could _like_ like her. She sort of wanted to write the entire song down on a letter and throw it at Adora’s face. _I just know you got to taste like candy, candy girl._ A _liiiitle_ too forward. _I just wanna know if you will let me be your world._ Hm, maybe that could work with a small change _._

Catra still wasn’t even sure if that was what Adora was actually listening to in that day. What if she didn’t recognize where the lyrics were from? Especially since she was about to change it too. Catra shook her head still not believing that apparently that was her life now. When she opened instagram again she noticed _glimm and bowow had followed her for some reason. She then took a deep breath and posted the picture.

Catra didn’t even like writing captions, the pictures usually spoke for themselves. Now having posted such a cheesy one made her want to throw her phone one more time, this time through the window so she’d never have to look at it again. Instead, she went to take a shower.

Before going to sleep she contemplated the ceiling for a while before reluctantly opening the app again. She had more notifications than she expected.

 

 _Liked by_ **_en_trap_ta_** _,_ **_ado_ra_ ** _and 37 others_  
**catra.mp3** i just want you to know that i will let you be my world  
_1h ago_  
**scorps** THATS MY BEST FRIEND!!!!!!!!!  
**scorps** 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍  
**itslonnie** damn 🔥  
**ado_ra** you should post more you're really pretty! 😊

 

The inhuman noise Catra made next startled even herself. Her phone slipped through her hands straight to her face.

 

* * *

 

Catra managed to wake up in time for the early bus on Monday. Her heartbeat feeling faster than usual as soon as she heard her alarm ringing.

As she got on the bus she spotted those blue eyes staring at her. If Catra had looked at Adora’s direction maybe half a second later she would’ve missed the subtle change of expressions on her face. It went from maybe, anticipation to relief? And then that familiar smile.

“Hey, Adora.” Catra smiled back and sat next to her.

“Hi! You’re early again. Too much homework?”

“Yeah, I guess…” Catra looked down playing with the zipper of her jacket. “It’s freezing today.”

“Maybe wearing ripped skinny jeans on this weather isn’t the _best_ choice.” Adora said sarcastically.

“But then how would I look this cool?” Catra said in a cocky low voice, turning to Adora as she opened her arms and gestured at herself.

Catra paused as if she was actually waiting for an answer, but in reality she got lost in thoughts when she looked at Adora’s soft eyes again. She was worried things were going to feel awkward, or she’d end up doing something weird, but the girl next to her just melted her anxieties away.

Adora was the one to break eye contact first.

“You don’t have to worry about it, you always look cool.” She smiled down at her phone, browsing through her music library.

“If you say so.” Catra sighed, still looking at her.

After a few seconds of silence Adora turned to her again. Her eyes moving very slightly from left to right, as if she couldn’t pick which of Catra’s eye she wanted to focus on. Catra unconsciously did the same. She didn’t realize how close together they were sitting until now.

It was like Adora’s eyes held all the blue summer skies that Catra missed so much in that cold and dead winter. Maybe that’s why she made her feel so warm.

For maybe half a second Catra noticed Adora’s gaze shift to below her eyes to... Her lips? But then it shifted back.

Catra could feel her heartbeat again.

“I lied to you.” Catra finally broke out of the trance she was in.

Adora blinked twice, like if she had also been hypnotized.

“Uh?”

“I don’t actually have any homework.” Catra paused. “Ok, that’s another lie, I always have homework.” Another pause, she lowered her voice. “But that’s not why I’m taking this bus today.”

Adora’s eyes crinkled as a big smile spread through her face. Catra could stare at that smiley face forever.

“And what’s the real reason?”

Catra smirked raising one eyebrow.

“Take a guess.”

“Um…” Adora looked up and bit her lower lip, still smiling. Gosh, her lips looked so _soft_. “You were dying to know what amazing songs I discovered this weekend so you couldn’t wait until Friday?”

Catra laughed and rolled her eyes. Adora’s dumb smile growing even bigger.

“You’re so dumb, Adora.” She reached for her earphone. “So show me what amazing songs you got.”

Adora opened a playlist called _Bus Ride 2.0_ that she had started that weekend. She said the early bus required more “chill and vibey” songs since it was so early in the morning. Catra liked that idea. Adora held her phone with both hands, arms extended, invading Catra’s space a bit so both could look at it. Catra then did what felt most natural. She slid her hand under Adora’s arm, holding it, and with the other reached for the screen, clicking on a Lana Del Rey song from the list. She then rested that hand on the other side of Adora’s arm, resting her head on the girl’s shoulder next (a movement that already felt so familiar to her).

Adora placed her phone next to her and rested her head on Catra’s too. After a moment she retracted the arm under Catra slowly, placing her hand closer to the side of her body. Catra reached for it with the hand that was under Adora’s arm, carefully interlocking their fingers together. Adora squeezed her hand softly and Catra thought she was about to become a supernova.

They stayed like that for the remainder of the ride. Adora lazily rubbed Catra’s thumb with her own. With her other hand Catra made small circles with her fingers over Adora’s forearm. None of them spoke a word. There was no need to. The calming songs almost made Catra fall asleep, but she didn’t want to miss any second of what was happening.

The bus arrived way sooner than Catra wished it did. They slowly sat up, taking a moment too long to finally let go of each other’s hands so they could reach for their backpacks.

“See you… tomorrow?” Adora asked a bit hesitant. Her cheeks had a cute shade of pink.

Catra felt her face warm too, but her whole body was warm.

“I’ll check my agenda.” She winked and clicked her tongue, causing Adora’s classic reaction towards her - the eyes roll.

 

Later that day Catra looked at the weather forecast and saw that the next day would be one of those weird winter warm days. It hadn’t snowed in a while which meant that the bike paths would be clear.

 

**Adora**

tomorrows gonna be like super warm  
global warming i guess  
but good for biking

yeah?  
do u bike?? wish i had one

 

Crap.

But maybe...

 

**Adora**

i do when its not like  
game of thrones winter outside  
and also to avoid the bus

hmm

i could give u a ride tomorrow  
if u feel like avoiding the bus

sounds possibly dangerous  
i’m in

cool :)

do u have an extra helmet?

bold of u to assume i wear a helmet

 

Catra wasn’t sure how that’d play out. She had never given someone else a ride on her bike before. It was like her precious baby that nobody could touch. But when she saw that the weather would be nice, images of her and Adora biking into the sunset started playing in her head.

 

The next morning Catra sat lazily at the bench by the bus stop, one foot on the bench and arms spread out over the backrest. It still felt chilly, but nothing compared to the other cold days.

Her bike leaned on the side of the bench. It was all matte black — obviously — except for the rims of the wheels which were a dark red. The handlebars were long and U-shaped, kind of mimicking those cool biker gangs motorcycles. It also had some modifications (thanks to Entrapta), like a little bluetooth speaker attached to the stem that was charged by the pedals moving. It had a fancy rear rack that allowed her to hang her backpack off of its side, and it was large enough to work as a seat.

When the bus reached the stop Adora jumped off it excitedly, beaming as she saw Catra there.

“Hi!” She started analyzing the bike. “Woah, nice bike.”

“I know right.”

Catra smiled and got up, dragging the bike to the street.

“Feel free to hang your stuff off the rear rack.” She got on the bike, one feet on the ground for balance, and Adora did as she suggested. “Oh, and check this out!” Catra connected her phone with the speaker and put a playlist with happy upbeat songs on. “It doesn’t get too loud though, sadly.”

“That’s so cool though!” Adora said as she got up behind Catra.

“So we can go through the bike path on the main road.” Catra gestured towards the street they were on. “Or through the path that I usually take that is more scenic, I guess. But it’s a little longer. What do you wanna do?”

“Scenic path!”

“Cool.”

Catra pushed her foot off the ground and started pedaling, a little slower than usual as she adapted to the extra weight behind her. She made a turn to the right where the street got steeper than the main road. There was a kind of hidden bike trail that she found one day that led towards the school. It reminded Catra of the Stranger Things scenarios, but without it being spooky. The decline made them go steadily faster and it was now easier to balance.

“The way to the scenic path can get a little fast. Make sure you hold on to something.”

Catra figured Adora had enough space to hold on the edge of the rack behind her. And maybe she did. But Catra felt the girls’ arms wrapping around her waist and suddenly the air didn’t feel chilly anymore.

“Can we go faster?” Adora asked a little too loud close to Catra’s left ear. She sounded like a happy little kid.

“Don’t need to ask twice.” Catra grinned.

She started pedaling faster as the road got steeper. Catra loved biking as fast as she could, sometimes almost crashing at cars that would appear out of nowhere. That early in the morning everywhere seemed deserted though, with the exception of one or two crazy morning people running on the sidewalks. Given Catra’s past weeks, she figured she was becoming a morning person too.

Catra made a sharp turn and felt Adora’s arms tightening around her. That made Catra want to go even faster.

“You good back there?”

“YeAH!” Adora’s reply sounded more like a little scream than a word. “This is fuuun!” She started to giggle.

Catra could probably bike to the moon.

They turned to a back road that led to a little tunnel in the distance, now a bit slower as the path was almost flat. Maybe it did look a little spooky.

“Are you kidnapping me?”

“Maybe.”

The tunnel was the entrance to the bike trail. The path went straight ahead as far as the eye could see. It was surrounded by nature and looked beautiful even in the winter. The trees still had snow on them but the path was pretty clear.

“Woah.” Adora exclaimed.

“You should see this place in the Fall!”

Catra felt Adora’s arms letting go of her and automatically went a little slower, afraid the girl could lose her balance. After a moment she heard a camera sound go off.

“Are you taking pictures?”

“Yeah! Can we take a selfie?”

“Sure?”

Adora wrapped her arms around Catra again as she handed her phone to her. Catra took it with one hand, making sure she was able to keep her balance. She extended her arm high above them ready to take a picture. Adora embraced her tighter and rested her chin on Catra’s shoulder, a bright big smile on her face. Catra couldn’t help but smile too as she snapped a couple of pictures. What We Live For by American Authors was echoing off the small speaker and everything felt just perfect.

“Are there walking trails around here too?”

They passed through some small openings in the woods.

“Yep, there are a lot of interconnected trails. Some lead to some pretty cool clearings.”

“How much have you explored around here?”

“Oh, a lot. It’s probably the reason I’ve accidentally skipped first period so much.”

“ _Accidentally?_ ” Adora chuckled.

They were going at a nice speed, not too slow but not too fast either. There was technically no need for Adora to still be holding on to her as the path was basically a straight line. Her arms remained steady around Catra though (which she didn’t mind). At some point Adora rested her head on Catra’s back. They rode in silence for a while.

“Now I understand why you hate the bus so much.”

“I don’t _hate_ it. Not anymore at least...” Catra sighed. Adora could probably feel the changes in her breath. “It has its pros.”

Adora hugged her a little tighter. Catra’s cheeks were already hurting from so much smiling.

After a while they reached a bifurcation and took the left path that would lead to a road near the school. As they approached the first school buildings Catra spotted a short pink-haired girl in the distance.

“Isn’t that your friend?” Catra pointed towards the girl. “Glitter?”

Adora raised her head.

“Glimmer! Can you drop me by her?”

“Sure thing.”

Catra started pedaling faster towards Glimmer who was going on the same direction as them. Catra went maybe too fast, and as she passed Glimmer she hit the brakes and pushed the back of the bike to one side. Adora let out a little scream and held Catra tighter as the bike skidded with the abrupt stop, tires screeching. Catra put one foot down on the ground before they could fall and tried to pretend that all of that had been completely planned.

“Hi Glimmer!!” Adora started laughing.

Catra turned off the speaker. Glimmer had a scared looked on her face.

“Adora! That was, um, an entrance!” She held a Starbucks drink firmly in her hands. “Don’t ever do that again though, I almost dropped my cinnamon spiced latte.”

Adora chucked and let go of Catra, jumping off the bike. “Sorry about that. It was fun though.” She turned to Catra smiling.

Glimmer glanced between them. The confused expression turning into a smug one.

“Sooo you must be Catra!”

“Ah, right! Glimmer, this is Catra. Catra, Glimmer.” Adora’s cheeks started to turn a light shade of pink.

“Hey.” Catra nodded to the short girl. She looked so girly, Catra could never imagine her as emo.

“I’ve heard _a loooot_ about you lately.” Her eyes shifted to Adora as she emphasized her words.

Catra raised one eyebrow and glanced at Adora before smirking. The blonde’s face was getting pinkier.

“Good things, I hope?”

“A-”

“So, Glimmer!” Adora interrupted her. “I need to get to the gymnasium but we needed to talk about that thing, remember??” She grabbed the girl’s arm a little too strong making her almost drop her whatever latte again. “Walk with me?”

It sounded more like an order than a question.

Catra was finding all of this very amusing.

“Oooh sure, that thiiiing… that we were talking about…” Glimmer said as she stabilized her drink.” I remember that, of course. Let’s go then.” She looked back at Catra smiling. ”It was nice to meet you, Catra!”

“Same!” Catra looked at Adora. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yes?” Adora blinked “I mean, yes!” She smiled and waved before turning to walk with her friend.

“Oh, Adora?”

Adora turned back so fast that Glimmer’s drink almost flew away for the third time. Catra had to contain a laugh.

“Aren’t you forgetting anything?” Catra reached for the girl’s backpack that was still hanging off the rear rack.

“Oh gosh, right!” She let go of Glimmer and walked to Catra again. “Sorry about that.”

Their hands brushed together as Adora got her backpack back.

“Thank you for the ride by the way.” She lowered her voice a bit and smiled that soft-eyed smile of hers.

“No problem.” It seemed to always make Catra smile back.

They probably stared at each other for a little too long because Glimmer started to clear her throat very loudly.

“Bye!” Adora widened her eyes and turned back towards Glimmer who had that smug look again.

“Bye, Adora.”

Catra went back to the bike trail to spend some more time there. It was a little cold without Adora’s warmth around her, though.

 

Catra went to have lunch with Scorpia and Entrapta as she usually did. They all had sandwiches, except Entrapta had lots of tiny sandwiches laid in front of her.

“Sooo Valentine’s days is in two days…” Scorpia said out of nowhere.

“Is it?” Catra asked with her mouth full.

“Haven’t you noticed all the heart decorations around school since last week?” Entrapta asked as she analyzed one of the sandwiches carefully.

“No.” That was lie.

“Well, good thing we reminded you!” Scorpia stopped eating and rested her head in between her hands, smudging ketchup on her face. “So what are you going to get Adora?” She looked eagerly at Catra.

Catra swallowed a bite.

“Why should I be getting her anything?”

“Don’t couples do that? You two are like… dating, right?” Entrapta asked eating a whole little sandwich.

“What? No! We’re just...” Friends didn’t sound right. At least Catra hoped it was more than that. “Honestly, I don’t know.” She groaned.

“Haven’t you two discussed the whole instagram _experiment_?”

“Uh, not really.”

“Catra!!” Scorpia placed her hands down the table a little too hard. “When are you going to learn that you need to talk about your feelings?”

“ _Feelings_? Ew.” Catra pretended to focus on what was left of her own sandwich.

“Look at me and tell me you don’t like her.”

Catra stared at Scorpia narrowing her eyes. She usually liked challenges, but not the ones she knew she’d lose. She took a deep breath.

“ _Uuuugghhhh_ fine!” Catra dragged her hands down her face. “I fucking like her, okay? I think about her almost every fucking minute of the day!” Catra punched the table. “I wanna punch her stupid face so she can stop being so fucking pretty!”

Scorpia tried to contain an excited scream with her own hands but wasn’t very successful.

“So tell her that! Maybe not the last part...”

“And also consider a less aggressive approach.” Entrapta pointed out and Scorpia hugged her since she couldn’t reach Catra from across the table.

“I love love!” Scorpia exclaimed and went back to eating her food.

Catra rolled her eyes, her face burning. She took another deep breath and relaxed her hands that were still clenched into fists. She already knew she liked Adora but it was weird to say that out loud. What if Adora didn’t like her?? If she did she would’ve said something by now, right? Or maybe she’s thinking the same thing... She then felt her phone buzzing.

 

**Adora**

can we ride your bike tmrrw again??  
kinda wanted to explore one of the trails a little bit  
but only if u want too ofc

yeah!!  
but it will be colder than today

i’ll bring a blanket

 

Maybe Scorpia was right.

 

She decided she’d take Adora to a trail that led to a small lake. She remembered it was a very pretty clearing in the fall, hopefully it would still be pretty now. She couldn’t decide on what she’d say. Or if she’d actually say anything. Maybe she should play a romantic song before saying anything... But what song??? That night Catra didn’t sleep much.

Still, when she woke up the next morning she felt like she could run a marathon.

She made sure to put on an extra layer and wear jeans that had only a few tears. The sky was clear and the weather wasn’t as bad as the other days but definitely colder than the morning before.

As she approached the bus stop on her bike Adora was already there, sitting a little crouched on the bench.

“Don’t tell me the fucking bus was actually on time today?” Catra said as she reached Adora. She had a blanket roll hanging on her shoulder along with her backpack.

“Catra! I was starting to think you weren’t coming.” She smiled, looking extra cute with her hair down in a beanie and with her nose pink from the cold.

“You really think I’d let you freeze to death?” Catra pretended to look offended.

“I hoped not.”

Adora got up and put her backpack and blanket on the back of the bike.

“You actually brought a blanket.”

“I said I would! Can I pedal today?”

Catra snorted. “No way.”

“What? Why not? I won’t crash it.”

“No one can touch my bike. I mean, besides you. But you only have passenger privileges.”

Adora rolled her eyes.

“Oh, so I should feel special?”

“Yes, you’re very special.” Catra said poking Adora’s forehead. “Now jump on already, I’m freezing.”

Adora stared at Catra for a second too long before hopping on the bike. She wrapped her arms around Catra as soon as she started pedaling. Catra was not freezing anymore.

“Try not to go _too slow_ today.” Adora said in a mocking voice.

“Oh, yeah? I was going easy on you yesterday.”

“Suuure.”

Catra huffed and grinned.

“You have no idea what you just signed up for, princess.”

Catra started pedaling as if her life depended on it. Adora laughed slash screamed with every turn. But mostly importantly she grasped on Catra so tightly that Catra thought she’d actually crush her (it felt nice though). They didn’t even remember to play something on the bike’s speaker this time.

They zoomed through the streets and soon enough reached the short tunnel that led to the bike trail. Catra finally slowed down, catching her breath, her legs were burning.

“I really thought we were going to hit that car.” Adora was also panting.

“It wasn’t my fault it came out of nowhere!”

“Catra, you literally ran a red light.”

“Well you said to go fast, so...”

“So it’s my fault?”

“Exactly!” Catra sneered. “I’m glad we’re on the same page, princess. And you should be glad I’m such an amazing biker.”

“I am _sooo_ glad we almost hit a car in high speed, Catra. And a runner. And a street pole.”

“Emphasis on _almost_.” Catra pointed one finger up.

Catra didn’t have to look at Adora’s face to _know_ she was rolling her eyes.

“What’s with the princess thing? You keep calling me that today.”

Last night on Catra’s attempt to find a romantic song she stumbled up a very old song by Elton John called Princess. The lyrics basically described Adora, and the guitar was kinda cool, so she added it to her _sky blue_ playlist. It must’ve gotten stuck in her head.

“No reason.” _You are my princess / You make me smile / You make the sun shine on me._ “You’re just such a princess.” Catra mocked her.

Adora gasped.

“I am _not_!”

Catra started laughing.

A few minutes later she saw the opening of the trail she had in mind and stopped by it.

“No dramatic skidding today?” Adora asked jumping off the bike.

“Maybe later.” Catra smirked at her and got off the bike too. The walking trail wasn’t paved nor very even so it would be hard to bike through it.

Catra started walking holding her bike by the stem on her left with one hand. Adora followed on her right, arms sometimes touching. With the adrenaline caused by the crazy biking fading out, it started to feel cold again.

“Brrr it’s really cold today.” Adora said rubbing her own arms.

“Yeah I told you.” Catra poked the other girl’s cheek. She winced at the cold touch.

“Geez, you must be freezing.” She walked to the bike and got her blanket roll.

She unrolled it and held it by the corners like a cape high in the air. She then put her arms around Catra’s neck, covering both of them with the blanket. Her head dangerously close to Catra’s. Catra held her breath.

“We have, like, the perfect height difference.” Adora said as they kept walking. “I don’t even need to tiptoe to reach over your shoulders.”

Catra exhaled. She ran her right arm around Adora’s back, placing her hand by her waist.

“Are you calling me short?”

Adora giggled turning her head towards Catra. She felt her warm breath on her ear. Adora was _so_ close. Catra remembered that she still didn’t know what she was going to say to her. Her plan went as far as sitting together by the lake at the clearing. Maybe she should just improvise? Her thoughts were interrupted when Adora _screamed_ on her ear as she tripped on probably a rock or a stupid twig, dragging Catra and her bike down with her.

“ _AaaAouCH!_ ”

The bike landed on top of Catra, who landed half on Adora half on the ground, who landed back first on the ground, her head hitting a big tree root with a loud thud.

Catra took a moment to understand what had just happened. She almost hit her head on a tree but besides from probably a bruise on her leg she was in one piece. Adora cushioned her fall, she was a really good pillow after all. Catra managed to untangle herself from the blanket and kick her bike off her. She saw Adora rubbing the back of her own head with her eyes shut and mumbling curse words.

She got off Adora, kneeling next to her.

“Oh my god are you ok?”

Adora opened her eyes and blinked a few times at Catra before bursting out laughing.

“Why are you laughing!? Fuck, did you get a concussion?”

Catra was already imagining having to drag a delirious and injured Adora on her back to the nearest hospital.

“No, oh my god.” Adora managed to contain her laugh. “You look so worried, I just tripped!”

Catra grabbed her face and got closer, trying to see if Adora’s pupil’s were of the same size.

“Yeah and hit you head.”

“I’ve been hit harder by soccer balls way too many times.” She grabbed her wrists and smiled at her. “Don’t worry.”

They stared at each other’s eyes barely blinking.

“Ok, your eyes look fine.” Catra could feel Adora’s breath on her. “You’re so dumb, Adora.”

“I can’t even argue this time.” She let go of Catra’s wrists and rubbed her head again.

Catra cleaned some dirt off Adora’s hair and got up, giving her hand out to help the other girl.

“Let’s go, we’re almost there.”

Adora grabbed her hand but Catra didn’t let it go once she got up.

“So you don’t fall again.” Catra explained with a smug shrug.

“Sounds reasonable.” Adora rolled her eyes and smiled.

They managed to lift the bike and get the blanket before continuing on the trail. Catra made sure to point out every rock and twig on the ground. Adora made sure to kick them towards Catra when possible. They soon reached the clearing.

There wasn’t much besides a frozen lake in the center. But there was a peaceful atmosphere and the lake reflected the beautiful colors of the morning sky. It looked like a scenario taken out of a Disney movie.

“Woah, it’s so beautiful.” Adora said then gasped. “Should we go try to walk on the lake!?”

Catra had to pull the girl’s arm to stop her from walking to the lake’s direction (luckily they were still holding hands).

“Adora, you literally just fell on the ground and now you want to walk over thin ice?”

“Right... Maybe not the best idea.”

She opened the blanket and placed it on the ground, sitting on it and hugging her knees. Catra leaned her bike on the ground and sat next to Adora, arms and legs touching.

“You sure you didn’t get a concussion?”

Adora chuckled. “Sorry, I guess I get a little loopy when I don’t sleep much.”

Catra turned to her.

“What kept you up?”

“You know, things… thoughts... “ Adora looked up. “Playlists…”

“Yeah, same...”

They stared at the lake in silence for a while. Catra could hear some birds chirping in the distance. She felt her nose getting colder. They should leave soon or Adora would be late. She was trying to build enough courage to turn to Adora again and probably just stumble over senseless words when Adora grabbed her phone and held it out so Catra could take it.

“I, um, wanted to show you something.” She bit her lip but still stared straight ahead.

Catra furrowed her brow.

“A playlist?” She grabbed the phone and stared at the screen.

“Mhm.”

Adora seemed to become restless all of a sudden. The playlist was called _Question_ and had a few songs. Was she supposed to play something? There were random artists that she never heard of and it started with Adele’s Hello? The fourth song was just called “and”, who names a song “and”??

Adora started to pick on her nails, she looked weirdly uncomfortable. Catra was very confused. She then noticed the sixth song was Pretty Girl. Wait… Oh. _OH_. The songs formed some type of phrase? Catra started to feel her heartbeat on her throat. She swallowed and started reading each title.

 

**_Question_ **

  1. __Hello__
  2. _You Are_
  3. _Really Cool_
  4. _and_
  5. _Really Really_
  6. _Pretty Girl_
  7. _I Might_
  8. _Have A Crush_
  9. _On You_
  10. _So That’s Why_
  11. _I’d Like To Know_
  12. _IF YOU_
  13. _Wanna Be_
  14. _My Valentine_
  15. _Question Mark_



 

Catra had to contain the urge to throw Adora’s phone on the lake.

She read the titles again, this time slowly. Just to make sure she wasn’t the one being delirious now.

Catra smiled so big she was sure her cheeks were going to rip apart. She placed the phone down, feeling warm, happy, ecstatic, a little dizzy. Maybe she was having a heart attack. She started giggling.

Adora finally turned to her. Eyebrows high and eyes big and full of worry blinking at her. Catra shouldn’t be laughing right now, maybe she was actually delirious.

“W-why are-”

Catra placed her hands on the sides of Adora’s head.

“Adora.” She managed to stop laughing. She hoped her hands weren’t too cold. “You’re literally the biggest dork in the entire world.”

She got closer to Adora and kissed her. First a little too fast, worried she could get away from her. But Adora was there. She then held Catra’s jaw. She wasn’t going anywhere. She moved her hands to Catra’s neck and pulled her down over her. Not like last time when they were falling and screaming, this time gently and intentionally. Adora was so warm, so soft, and Catra was there, _kissing_ her.

“A-” Catra tried to say but Adora kissed her again. She smiled against her mouth. “Ado-”

Adora kissed her one more time.

Catra raised her head. She saw Adora below her opening her eyes. Adora tried to reach for her but Catra held her in place. They both started giggling.

“Adora?” Catra rubbed her thumbs over Adora’s pink cheeks.

“Yeah?”

Adora had that soft smile that Catra loved so freaking much.

“I, uh... _Like_ like you.”

Adora laughed wrinkling her nose. Gosh, that was even cuter this close to her.

“Yeah, I think you just made it pretty clear. I _like_ like you too, dummy.”

Adora kissed her again.

After a few moments Catra pulled away, catching her breath for a bit.

“Also, you’re gonna be late for practice.”

Adora giggled. “You want to go?”

“No.” Catra rested her forehead on Adora’s. “Do you?”

Adora reached for Catra’s lips again.

That day she missed soccer practice for the first time in her life. They made it in time for first period, though. _Barely_.

 

* * *

 

The next morning Catra felt like she was floating. On the bus she was greeted by the smiliest Adora she had ever seen.

“Hey, Adora.” Catra sat next to her and smirked. “Or should I say hey, valentine?”

“Actually you never really said if you wanted to be my valentine…” Adora shrugged.

Catra rolled her eyes. She wanted to just grab Adora’s face and kiss her. Technically she could do that. How amazing was that!? She grabbed her phone instead. Adora tried to see what she was doing on it but she hid it from her. After a few moments she gave it to Adora.

“There.”

She had made a quick playlist called _answer_. Catra started laughing as she saw Adora’s eyes rolling.

 

**_answer_ **

  1. __Duh!__
  2. _You_
  3. _Dumb Blonde_



 

“Dork.” Adora laughed too.

“I actually wanted to show you another playlist today...” Catra rubbed her neck, feeling her face warming up. “As like... a Valentine’s day gift.”

Adora gasped.

“Wait! I made one for you too!” She grabbed her phone and gave it to Catra. “Actually, two.”

“Two!?”

“Yeah, I kind of… already had a playlist with songs that reminded me of you.” She smiled and started to blush. “But then I made another one with songs that I thought you would enjoy more. Since the first one might be a little too sappy…”

Catra looked at her phone and saw two playlists on a folder called Valentine’s Day. Their names were _Blue_ and _Golden Brown_. Catra wondered if someone had ever died from smiling too hard. She was afraid she could be the first one.

“I also kind of already had a playlist with songs that reminded me of you. It’s the one called _sky blue_.”

Adora beamed and opened the playlist.

“Oh my god, there are sappy songs in here?? _AND TAYLOR SWIFT!?_ ” Adora shrieked.

She was too damn cute. Catra grabbed Adora’s face and kissed her.

“Happy Valentine’s day, Adora.” She said smiling against her lips.

 

They could look at playlists later.

 

_fin_

 

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea on Valentine's Day but got (a little) carried away and only finished it today lol
> 
> I hope it was a nice reading! Feel free to go talk to me on tumblr/twitter @artemisbye [link](http://artemisbye.tumblr.com) (I need more spop blogs to follow!) or leave comments here!
> 
> Some things for fun:  
> Playlists mentioned + a general one for the fic :) (there may be some overlap)  
> [General one](https://spoti.fi/2IKHH1u)  
> [sky blue](https://spoti.fi/2UgqU7J)  
> [blue & golden brown](https://spoti.fi/2En74Rv) (I combined them in one but feel free to imagine which song would be in each)
> 
> edit: thank you all for the awesome feedback!! it means a lot!  
> If you haven't already check out this INCREDIBLE art by [artofkace](http://artofkace.tumblr.com) of [catra and adora on the bus](http://artofkace.tumblr.com/post/183175301462/read-this-amazing-fic-by-harmonizingyourdash-and) (i'm still shook)  
> and [kirrba](https://kirrba.tumblr.com) made the [cutest comic](https://kirrba.tumblr.com/post/183292982996/this-is-based-off-this-amazing-fanfic-that-i-spent)!!
> 
> edit 2.0: THANK YOU FOR 10K HITS THAT'S INSANE!!


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